SIDDIPET: In a trenchant attack on the BJP, Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday said the saffron party has no moral right to seek votes in the Dubbaka by-election as it had done incalculable injustice to Telangana.
Winding up his election campaign, Harish, in an open letter with 18 questions to BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, resurrected the forgotten promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014, and how after the division, seven mandals had been transferred from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh.
The Finance Minister also mentioned the gifting of the Lower Sileru Hydro Power Plant to Andhra Pradesh, which had caused an annual loss of Rs 500 crore for Telangana. Harish touched upon the promised Bayyaram steel plant, how the UPA-sanctioned ITIR had been scrapped after the advent of the NDA at the Centre and the abandoning of the proposal to build a railway coach factory at Kazipet. He also wanted answers from the saffron party on why the river water allocation has not been made for Telangana.
The Finance Minister took exception to the Centre’s reluctance to recognise at least one irrigation project in the State as a national project and its disinclination to sanction any amount for either Mission Kakatiya or Mission Bhagiratha, even though the NITI Aayog had recommended Rs 24,000 crore for the two projects. He raised the non-allocation of any funds for cleansing the Musi river though the Centre had been very magnanimous in making allocations for the Narmada and Ganges.
Training his guns at BJP nominee M Raghunandan Rao, Harish asked him how he can take care of the people of Dubbaka when he could not look after his own parents, who are pensioners and draw subsidy rice from the State government. “Since 2016, Raghunandan Rao’s father Bhagavantha Rao has been receiving Asara pension and 12 kg of subsidy rice every month,” Harish said. In fact, under Rythu Bandhu, Bhagavantha Rao had received Rs 54,000 for his two acres while Raghunandan Rao’s mother was paid Rs 86,250 for three acres and 30 guntas of land.
Raghunandan Rao, himself, was paid Rs 1,01,550 for four acres and 30 guntas but is spreading falsehood about Rythu Bandhu, Asara and the ration scheme. “He drinks Mission Bhagiratha water, enjoys 24-hour power supply and speaks lies,” he said.